Chapter 49: Welcome Back

Chapter 49: Welcome Back

“Rollo, Leo, you’re both finally back!” Claire cheerfully welcomed us as we pushed our luggage toward the car.

“Yeah...”

“Don’t you have anything more to say? It’s been like what? Over a month?”

“Sure... but we’ve been talking through the net almost every day. What else is there to say?”

“Men,” She sighed. “Let’s go then. I reserved a table for us at this new restaurant. Lana will be joining us as well!” She evilly grinned in Leo’s direction.

Leo, Thorne, and I nodded in unison before we finished packing our luggage into the trunk so we could get on our way. The car started leaving the airport and got onto the highway while I enjoyed the view.

It was nice to see the familiar landscape of Elevate City again. The backdrop of the space elevator in the background acted as a permanent landmark that made it impossible to mistake it for any other city.

From the rearview mirror, I could see that Claire was on a call, which explained the silence.

“So how was your time in NLA?” Thorne asked as he merged into the traffic that crossed the bridge toward the city.

“For the majority of it, boring. The only fun part was before we managed to strike a deal with a shipping company to transport our stuff in exchange for our transportation service. After that, we spent the last few weeks doing paperwork, going to meetings, and interviews. ”

“How about you Leo?”

“Not too different from normal. As long as I have a good connection to the net, it’s mostly the same for me. It was just that Rollo kept throwing work on my plate or it would’ve been a pleasant trip.”

I glared at Leo beside me mainly for show, as he wasn’t wrong, though I made Thorne wear a troubled expression, “I see... so you guys got the transportation network thing figured out?”

“Well, mostly. Trucks are running and everything. We’ll have to see if any issue arises, though. The main thing I’m worried about is if the fake damages we put on a vehicle will be seen through. I’d really rather not deal with another corp who gets any ideas with our wastelander connections.”

“Don’t worry, the monitoring program I made will monitor your men and keep them honest and I doubt any corp would waste resources analyzing your vehicles often enough to figure out anything,” Leo said as he played around on his terminal.

“Yeah, it’s been working pretty well for us here, but I think we should get a dormitory soon. It’ll further prevent any possible leaks with the added security,” Thorne added, as he signaled to change lanes.

“Well, that will have to wait until we get some funds. We’re stretched thin already with this new transportation endeavor and renovating our new office. We’ll also want to save a good chunk of credits to incorporate too.”

Claire glanced back at me, her eyes no longer glowing, “The math boys say it’d be best to incorporate in two months when our cash flow stabilizes.”

“We’ll listen to the professionals then. It’s not like we’re in any rush. In the meantime, we can spend the time to relax and enjoy life!”

“Yay, I agree!” Claire clapped as I watched Leo and Throne with a frown on their faces.

“Come on, lighten up, boys, and let’s go enjoy dinner.”

Once we arrived, the two of them tried to put on a smile at the insistence of Claire, but Thorne faltered and tensed up once he saw the prices listed on the menu. It wasn’t until he started eating that his expression relaxed.

I watched as Leo and Lana bickered in their married couple fashion, as former corpos, they ate with refined table manners with ease. Compared to Thorne, who still looked tense at the shoulders, and Claire, who was enjoying herself a little too much, these two were far from ready to handle business dealings involving other corpos.

Let’s hope business goes well. That way I can increase their pay so they can eat out at places like these more often and learn more about corporate culture.I’d much rather stick with to help me with managing the business than hire some scheming corpo even if they were more experienced.

After dinner, we returned home, and I got prepared to go out as usual. As it’s been a while since I’ve been in the city, I called up my old friend, Fitel, to purchase some info on any harvester hideouts. I’ve been away long enough for them to infest the areas I had previously cleared. They were seriously like cockroaches.

“Fitel, it’s been a long time. Do you have any jobs or info on harvester hideouts?”

“Mr Halls, it has been a while. I don’t have any jobs that fit your criteria right now, but I do have some information on harvester locations.”

“Great, how much?”

“It will be the standard information fee of ten thousand credits.”

“Sent, I’ll be around for a while now, so let me know if any job comes up.”

“...It surprises me that you would still be interested in taking jobs from me, but alas, it is none of my business... I will contact you if anything suitable comes up.” The call ended before I could reply. Typical of Fitel.

Within a minute, the information I had bought from him arrived too.

There were still a few bodies dumped together in a pile that was only covered in some plastic sheets, but one of the bodies on the operating table suddenly coughed.

I quickly examined him and found that he was missing an arm, his optics, and likely various smaller implants in his head, judging by the incision point that still remained.

I guess I’ll be here a little longer than I thought. I’m going to have to find these implants or find ones that would work with what he has. Why can’t they have names on them?

By the time I got back, the sun had already risen.

I opened up my status as I lay on my bed and pondered for the future.

Status

Level:

14

EXP:

800/1400

Musculoskeletal:

76

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

27

Endurance:

24

Sensory Perception:

52

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

Stealth +7Hacking +3Cybernetic Engineering +7Stealth Technology +9Software Engineering +6

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

Cyberarm(Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6

Cyberarm(Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5

Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2

Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4

Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade